Canada-based Kinross Gold Corporation has reached a non-binding agreement with the Government of Ecuador for the Fruta del Norte (FDN) deposit located in Zamora Chinchipe province.
The final binding agreement will be signed once the project’s feasibility study is complete later this year.
Other terms of the agreement will include the evaluation to exploitation in accordance with Ecuadorian law, and once the negotiations are complete the parties will enter into definitive exploitation and investment protection agreements.
The Ecuador Government agreed to a sliding scale of gold royalty fees between 5% and 8%, depending on sale prices, and payment of $65m toward future royalties.